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As Americans Celebrate Labor Day 2010, U.S. Factories Are Closing In Droves

By Michael Snyder, on September 6th, 2010

Labor Day 2010 comes in the midst of a stunning wave of U.S. factory closings that stretches from coast to coast. Once upon a time America was the greatest manufacturing machine that the world has ever seen, but now it seems as though the only jobs available for working class Americans involve phrases such as “Welcome to Wal-Mart” and “Would you like fries with that?” Even though the population of the United States has exploded over the last several decades, the number of Americans employed in the manufacturing sector today is smaller than it was in 1950. America has become a voracious economic black hole that “consumes” as much as possible and yet actually produces very little. The United States is becoming deindustrialized at a blinding pace, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for blue collar American workers to find jobs that will actually enable them to support their families. The sad truth is that American workers don’t have a whole lot to actually celebrate this Labor Day. 14 million U.S. workers are “officially unemployed” and tens of millions of others have been forced to take part-time or temporary jobs that they are overqualified for just so they can survive. Unfortunately, this is not just a temporary situation for American workers. As millions of good jobs continue to get outsourced and offshored, Labor Day celebrations in coming years will be even more depressing.

The following are just some examples of the recent factory closings that have been sweeping the nation….

*Chrysler has announced that its plans to close an engine plant in Kenosha, Wisconisn are official. The factory will be shut down for good on approximately October 8th and about 575 jobs will be lost.

*The largest milk producer in the United States, Dean Foods, says that it will close a South Carolina dairy plant in October. That factory closing will eliminate 151 jobs. This is just the latest in a string of factory closings for Dean Foods. Over the past several years Dean Foods has closed factories in Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

*Continental Structural Plastics, a major producer of body panels for cars, is shutting down its plant in North Baltimore, Ohio in October and as a result 214 people will lose their jobs.

*Perfect Fit Industries (a prominent manufacturer of bedding accessories, pillows and comforters) has announced that it plans to close a factory in Loogootee, Indiana by the end of the year. As a result, 95 jobs will be lost.

*Ford Motor Company recently announced the closure of a factory that produces the Ford Ranger in St. Paul, Minnesota. Approximately 750 good paying jobs are going to be lost. Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty was so desperate to keep the plant open that he offered Ford a multi-million dollar incentive package full of tax cuts and job creation incentives to keep it open, but Ford rejected the offer, saying that the St. Paul plant just does not fit with Ford’s new “global” manufacturing strategy.

*The city of Breckenridge, Texas has been shaken by news that Karsten Homes notified nearly 130 employees that their local factory will be closing in two months.

*It has been announced that there will be a new round of layoffs at the Whirlpool factory in Fort Smith, Arkansas, but at this point the company is not saying how many jobs will be lost. Whirlpool has been laying off workers at the plant steadily over the past few years as much of the work that was once done at the factory has been moved to a facility down in Mexico.

*Midcoast Aviation is closing its Savannah, Georgia factory by the end of the year. This move will affect approximately 362 jobs.

*Federal-Mogul has been making headlamps for automobiles and for industrial use since 1954 in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, but now that era is coming to an end. Federal-Mogual has announced that the Boyertown plant will close by the end of the year and 70 jobs will be lost.

*Duro Bag Manufacturing Co. plans to close its factory in Hudson, Wisconsin by October 22nd. As a result, 63 workers will be without jobs.

*Quad/Graphics is the second-largest commercial printer in the United States. It prints Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, Time and Wired magazines. Unfortunately, times are tough for Quad/Graphics and they have announced the closing of five plants. The facilities to be closed are located in Mississippi, Ohio, Nevada and Tennessee. As a result of the closings, 2,200 workers will lose their jobs.

Scenes such as these are being repeated over and over and over across the United States.

What we are witnessing is the slow-motion deindustrialization of the United States.

This is very bad news for American workers, and indeed it is very bad news for all Americans, because the truth is that any economy that consumes far more than it produces does not have a bright future.

So what do you think about the deindustrialization of America? Feel free to express your opinion by leaving a comment below….

The biggest question I have about the deindustrialization of America is what will happen once it is fully complete? Many of the people rendered unemployed by all these factories shutting down will have to turn to the service economy for employment, but even that sector of the economy is diminishing.

How long will our service economy last with the spending power of the average American diminishing, the onslught of cheap labor from over seas and what ever lay offs that may, and will occur in the service economy starting soon? Not for long is my answer.

I mean every where you look you see a new mall, mega shopping center or some kind of hotel/motel being built. On one hand it is good that jobs are being made available, but it is not going to last. Our service economy alone is unsustainable by itself.

Allow me to play Devil’s advocate and ask why a manufacturing economy is important?

First, it allows a country a quick and easy way of employing large amounts of its citizens.

Second, when a large amount of citizens are working, they can be taxed by the state and federal governments which allows for the elimination of deficits.

Third, national security. A factory is just as important as a missle defense system because if you get foriegn nations dependant on you for good products, they are less likely to threaten you because if you are eliminated, they lose their ability to gain good products.

Connie

You are absolutely correct! Loud applause for the person paying attention!!

JWF

That giant sucking sound Ross Perot tried to warn us about just keeps getting louder and stronger.

What’s next? GM and Ford move their headquarters and operations to China? Don’t laugh, anything’s possible in this global economy.

Look at Ford, they’ve already announce North American closures because of their ‘global’ outlook. North America is overdeveloped. There’s no more room for real growth for automakers there and the unions, taxes and regulations are causing them pain to no end…

Joey

Let’s make sure that as consumers, we express our discontent with these manufacturers via our dollars. If Whirlpool wants to have Mexicans in Mexico build it’s tubs and spas, then let Mexicans in Mexico buy them all. Tell Whirlpool, Federal Mogul, etc. to stick it.

Connie

We need to tell our legislators that as well. And let them know with our votes. If you’re going to sell it this country it must be manufactored here. The poor suckers who are being paid pennies on the dollar to make things in the poorest economies cannot afford to purchase these things in sufficient quantities to generate the profit they desire and the unemployed people in this country whose jobs were shipped overseas cannot afford it for much longer either.

de Malfosse

Imperial Rome.

Ships from around the known world carried cargoes to the great port at (Ostia?), bringing to Rome everything.

When emptied, these ships would be reloaded with the only thing left produced in Rome: execrement for the fertilization of foreign fields.

End the Empire. Imperialism and War have brought America to this place.

Rich

I think it is terrible. As a Canadian, I can only watch the American Empire crumble right before our eyes with a mixture of horror and alarm. I don’t know if there is anything which can be done, the US economy seems like a runaway locomotive heading over a cliff. Other than preparing yourself and your family for the coming crash, it seems as if we are powerless to do anything to prevent it. Maybe the hope is in the re-building of society based on a different way of doing things other than relation to each other and our world through purely economic and selfish means.

If one owns a compamy which manufactures X, why wouldn’t one want to manufacture X in a place where it makes the most economic sense to do so?

LibertyMike

There is no need to “moderate” comments. It is absurd. What a spectacular misallocation of resources.

Michael R.

We are working to subsidize government and service debt. These take 2/3 to 3/4 of GDP. We are left to fight over the rest. When the Boomers were babies, say 50 years ago, tax rates were low and debt levels, by today’s measure, were non-existant. Americans manufacture there own consumer goods and one income provided a livelyhood for the typical American family. Mothers were at home with their children. These were “happy days”. Debt and taxes are the “twin pythons” that are stangling the life from the economy.

Mark Payne

The United States can not remain a great power without a manufacturing base. Both sides of the political spectrum have to realize that we need to save our manufacturing jobs. Less regulation, less business taxes, lower insurance costs and stop the bleeding of money and jobs to COMMUNIST China.

mbabsit

Well, most of the readers of this site are too retarded to come up with good opinions. Having been raised sucking the government teat, with television and the communist Dewey public schools as their only form of information, all they can do is spew forth with they’ve been taught: that only government is the answer, damn the private sector.

What has government given us? The “Civil” Rights Act, where companies are forced to hire those who can’t read and those who can’t speak English over more qualified candidates. At least with the factories in CHINA, the employees can read and all speak the same language. Besides, they don’t have a minority problem. Where have the best and brightest gone? They’ve either started their own businesses, or have gone overseas to greener pastures.

Government has also given us onerous “clean” air and “clean” water laws. These laws are so ridiculous, and so asinine, that when I recently applied for an FFL, I am forced to fill out a form for “manufacturing” (replacing a standard barrel on a Glock with a drop-in match grade barrel is considered “manufacturing” by BATF&E).

We also have “safety” laws, which, in my memory, have done nothing to increase worker safety, in fact, more workers have been injured than ever before, as government replaced common sense.

We also have “fair wage” crap by both unions and government. Now, what should a “fair wage” be? Hmm. My maternal great grandfather worked at the John Deere plant in Chicago. He earned enough to buy a home, BEFORE UNIONIZATION. Nowadays, a “fair” wage doesn’t make it, because of inflation, also by government and the Federal Reserve.

I know that I will not get a civil response as usual, that those who will respond will be publicly schooled garbage who will scan a few words, scream “Duh, duh, duh!” and respond accordingly. That, and the communist trash who continue to want to try garbage which has not worked in the past.

Pete Bromley

The author of this blog has a very clear and concise view of what is happening to our economy.This article details the most current news in an ongoing process of deindustrialization of our once great country.We have been betrayed by enemies foreign and domestic,and the results are evident for all to see.I am a former Marine Corps officer who is very sad to see the country I once fought for being dismantled by selfish cowards.The citizens of our country are as much to blame for this debacle as the corrupt leaders ,however.Modern Americans have little to no character like our forebears once had.People who were Americans in the past were hardy,self reliant folks who would have never have depended on the government to provide their living.They worked hard and their word was their bond;they relied on family and neighbors in times of need,and there was a genuine sense of community…this is no more.Now,the American sheeple have become slaves to the very government that is supposed to serve them.They are lazy,selfish,and ignorant,and cannot survive without big brother.God help us in the days to come.

Drew

It boils down to Union greed and Government oppression (taxation). These are the two largest causes of the problem.

Time to learn a trade, because the service economy is about to go under.

The restaurant industry is going to tank. No one will have any means to go out to eat. That’s a LOT of people to be unemployed.

Chris S

Change is inevitable and you can’t stop it. The key is to be leading change rather than resisting it and ultimately losing. If large manufacturing companies are dependent on a lot of labor and they can get it a lot cheaper somewhere else, then that’s what they will do. The irony is that with the state of automation such as it is, you can build manufacturing facilities that are highly automated that could probably run pretty efficiently almost anywhere. As others have pointed out, it isn’t just about jobs, there are other issues like national security that are undermined by no longer having a manufacturing capability. It may be the power of the unions that makes it difficult so it may be easier for companies to cut and run.

The US has succeeded in the past because of invention and innovation. To continue to succeed, it should be an innovator on updating legacy technology and dealing with all of the increasing issues that threaten to wipe us all out like not enough water, climate change, weening ourselves off of oil and so forth. Unfortunately, there is so much invested in the status quo, it seems like everyone will be destined to go down with the ship rather than fix it. The state of US innovation seems to be waning. When you look at the Chevy Volt at $40,000, is this the wave of the future or is this just another overpriced, non-competitive offering from GM that is destined to disappear? Maybe I’m just looking in the wrong place since GM was never a great innovator anyway.

It would take a lot of inspirational and visionary leadership to take a new and better course. With the current state of the economy and the political system, that seems unlikely. People had great hope for Obama but he is just another product of the political machinery. It’s going to take a lot more than that and that may not even be possible.

Gary

mbabsit-We need to spread the wealth of this country to everyone and not just the top 1%. Pres Obama is correct when he told that dolt Joe the plumber that we need to spread the wealth (are you Joe the plumber?)

If this means taxing the rich more (and it does ) than so be it. It is their cost to be a citizen of the USA whose policies/infrastructure/government etc allowed them to get rich in the first place.

On a separate note-service jobs do not need to b e the crap jobs they are. With passage of the employee free choice act they could be unionized and transformed into family supporting jobs similar to the way manufacturing jobs were transformed from bad dangerous jobs to good jobs.

Mbabsit-You are correct about china being a relatively homogeneous population with little or none of the race issues we need to deal with. This of courser allows them to not need to expend effort/money on dealing with these to issues. I do believe that diversity while generally good is way over rated.

http://marksolarsolution.com Mark A Frenette

I LIKE TO SEE, if one close’s one open’s but we need a market, For Do

Chrysler has announced that its plans to close an engine plant in Kenosha, Can we make samething like electric engine’s Or generater’s
Samething Ell’s.

The largest milk producer in the United States, Dean Foods, says that it will close a South Carolina dairy plant in October.
Can we, But and sale the milk for the School’s, Homeless,
See Big Producer Need Big money We only need to Work and eat,
So “Do it or self’s”, The tax’s right off they get for Closing, We can But For “CHEEP” “Do it or self’s”, In home banking, loaning shopping,All working the one, Alll for one and one for all.

RedGypsy

Here is whats coming folks.
————————–
As a “Gitano” I have seen it all first hand.

In ten years we will be a 3rd world country.
I am talking northern Mexico, Punjab, Kenya and other toilets as such.

The situation will be like this
You will live 3 families to a house.
You have to grow most of your food because you can’t afford it.
You may own and SUV but you won’t have money to drive it much.
The police will rob you every chance they get and you will be powerless to do anything about it.
You won’t throw out that moldy bread you will pick the mold off of it and make bread pudding.

Get the picture — All of you soft suburbanites had better get ready for it.

As a person we has lived in a third world country I call tell you it is not all that fun.

RED

GoneWithTheWInd

Some simple changes we could make to reverse this: 1)Eliminate corporate taxes. It is all passed on to the consumer anyway. 2)create right to work laws and level the playing field between unions and business. Right now unions are holding all the cards. 3)A simple law that recognizes the importance of industry to the defense of this country. Require that critical items be 50% manufactured in this country. Less critical things could be 20% or so. This would at least prevent the situation where everything is manufactured overseas. 4)Provide an incentive for companies operating within the U.S. to over-build or over-plan for expansion. Something as simple as building manufacturing plants with a capacity 20% larger then needed and even having 20% more machinery and equipment. This would allow for immediate buildup in case of emergency. 5)A similar incentive to stockpile raw materials and other necessary components. Right now many companies use the “just in time” model where any disruption shuts down the entire factory. Where it makes sense a 20% or so on sight supply of materials could provide insurance against disruptions.

Tom

The tea baggers are ruining this country. The republican party wants rich rule and all resources to go to the top 2%. They use their christian religion to try and control the population. The top 2% have moved on to the new consumer. It is NOT you. China, India, and Brazil are not just manufacturers anymore. They are the new consumer.

The GOP will use hate of goverment to further strip us of our rights and economic welfare.

andrew

S****!

QUICK! BUILD INFRASTRUCTURE!

GMM

Your country is being destroyed by the evil within……people are just not getting it, are they ?

I sure hope you Americans have your revolution soon and and damn those who spat on your constitution.

You have many friends to back you.

Good luck…

a Canadian

Onebeachbumm

Mark A Frenette needs to either learn English or go back to where he came from. English is the language of this once great country. I do not really understand what he is trying to say… even guessing I could be wrong.

“Made in America” was in demand and was always the best. Now you see “Assembled in America” which means it was made in China shipped over here and then someone put it together on another low wage job.

We need to return manufacturing to this country to remain the power that we have been in the past. We can not continue to outsource jobs and manufacturing.

Corporate taxes need to be lowered if not repealed. in fact the IRS needs to be abolished and replaced with the Fair Tax.
That would eliminate all sales taxes, fica, Social Security and other business killing taxes.

SorryNowThatWeKickedOut KingGeorge!

Time to re-read George Washington’s vision at Valley Forge.

Look it up on Google, read it, and tremble!

VegasBob

It boggles my mind that some people in this country still believe that America’s economic system is based on free-market capitalism.

What we have in the USA is crony capitalism, a form of fascism signified by an unholy alliance between huge mega-corporations and government.

The result is always the same no matter where crony capitalism takes root. Wealth becomes highly concentrated in the hands of the few, while the masses are systematically reduced to poverty.

If the people want to take back the America we knew as children, we need to dismantle the mega-corporations, dismantle the military-industrial complex, sharply scale back the size and scope of government and bring back punitively high income tax rates to prevent the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few.

Anything less would be mere window dressing and pabulum for the masses.

Gary

gone with the wind-business has ALL the power and unions have almost none! Right to work means “right to work for less”. We need to pass the employee free choice act and force business (who are sitting on record amounts of cash) to share the wealth and stop this race to the bottom. I guess your rant is a fact free zone?

Our minimum wage should be at least $12/hr w/bennies. There is no way CEO are worth several hundreds multiples more than the workers. Gov needs to impose a maximum wage on companies that get gov business. If companies do not like these terms then no gov business.

Hercules

Tom, you seem to be one of those who love the Government handouts. Our ‘Government’ does NOT give us rights or economic welfare. It is supposed to support those ‘rights’ we have as citizens and provide a climate where we can persue our own ‘Economic Welfare’. I know you won’t agree with this but I think you are looking at it backwards.

Unions are the only reason your underage kids aren’t working 16-hour days in a coal mine.

Environmental insanity…if you don’t like environmental protection, move to China, where your babies will die from melamine in their formula.

Insane regulations? You mean like the ones BP ignored thanks to the corporate cronies installed by Geo. Bush?

Crushing taxes? By comparison, our taxes are nothing compared to countries like Denmark; I think the tax rate there is about 80%. On the other hand, the Danes have universal health care, free education, free child care, homes to live in, and jobs.

As for demonizing capitalism, as an ideology, it’s not so bad. It’s just that it’s controlled by soulless, greedy bastards who are committing fraud while our government looks the other way.

And I bet you just love Glenn Beck.

http://Theeconomiccollapse Dang

Its scary place when the birth place of capitalism is dieing to its death. When you cant make capitalism work there any more. They have to leave to find a better place. Capitalism simple law that makes it so great is simple. If it doesnt work it wont last. If it doesnt make a profit its gone. Some one will find away to make it better an cheaper. But what happens there is a second party that doesnt have to follow these rules. They dont have to pay taxes or even make a profit ever. And can even run up a tab of 14 trillion dollars an give the bill to the capitalist people have to pay. I think to soon you even see the people leaving the country too.

Grumpy

Tom, that’s one of the most ignorant things I’ve seen posted here in a long time. If you don’t get it by now, what with all that’s going in in the US and the rest of the world, you never will. Enjoy your servitude, you moronic slave.

sonnyboy

Beginning in the 1960’s we began to focus on social issues (political correctness) and as a result lost our world wide competitive edge. Tough times ahead as many will lose their homes, livelihoods, and sense of purpose. Globalization transfers money out of this country and with it jobs. Sure, some will prosper. However, the majority, if this situation continues, are headed back to a type of serfdom not seen since the 1400’s. We all need to pray that this does not take place.

http://jamesjomeara.blogspot.com James O’Meara

“We are left to fight over the rest. When the Boomers were babies, say 50 years ago, tax rates were low …”

I’m 54, and when I was born, the top rate was 91%. My family lived on one income, union, of course. We had health insurance, dental, vision [remember that?], a house and car paid for with cash, and, when my father died, free tuition as a death benefit.

By Reagan’s time, the top rate was an “unfair” 70%, which he cut to 32%. Clinton “raised” it to 35% and the Wall Street Journal predicted “economic apocalypse.” Now “we” are talking about “extending the Bush tax cuts.”

It’s taken decades of think-tank brainwashing to make people think [1] taxes are “high” now and [2] high taxes are “bad”.

http://WBDM Joe in JT

I still remember the 60 Minutes program that showed an old company in Massachusetts that made winter jackets and pants. The old timer who owned the company was a wonderful character. He worked hard all his life, made excellent clothes, and treated all his employee’s like his family. Dan Rather followed him throughout the mill as he interacted with each employee, the old man knew every job because he probably had to do them all at one time. This man had integrity, a hard work ethic, honesty, and every other leadership quality. His employees loved him and respected him.

Fast forward to today and we have companies like Nike and Gap who entrap their young girl employees with a scam ad in a newspaper about a job. Then they are caged into a factory with barbed wire and security gaurds and have to work for .35 cents per hour. The girls have to pay “rent” for a bunk bed and a little food, a debt they can never repay for their freedom. And we buy their clothes at Wal-Mart.

Where did we go off the tracks? How did we go so wrong?

Z_Omnipotence

There is virtually no limit to outsourcing. It’s happened for decades in manufacturing and professional level jobs like computer programming. It’s becoming more and more prevalent to outsource design work in all of the engineering disciplines as well. There’s no limit to what can be outsourced. Even medical jobs can be outsourced and some have (Radiology). All it takes is a little technological innovation.

When every job is outsourced in America who will have money to buy anything? The few at the top of U.S. companies who outsourced the U.S. will soon learn that they can’t make any more money, because people have no money.

It’s time to stand up. You only have two choices if you want to survive. 1. Boycott foreign made products. 2. Move to another country like China. It’s time for the American worker to revolt again.

Lennie Pike

Tom:

What you said is one of the truest things I’ve seen posted here. Only when the cheap goods disappear from the shelves will the ones who disagreed with you have a Bridge Over the River Quai moment, if at all.

Did the Colonel who fell on the plunger device that set off the explosives on the bridge die or not? I don’t remember.

The Tea Party was immediately attacked by the Republican party. Who could think it would not be? Republicans are more responsible for globalization, Democrats are more responsible for growth of government and anti business conditions, but both are doing the jobs they have been assigned by the ones who control both parties: he who has the gold. Hence, one party. The assigned job? – destroy the United States because of a hatred for the principles found in our Founding Documents. A hatred for OTHERS to have those rights that is. They want those rights for themselves only and even more rights – an infinite number of rights. They want a world wide customer base and complete world control.

They are so few in number, but with their power of money control, there are so many who will sell themselves.

And we all just sit around watching it happen. With no physical action to stop it, it will continue until the end, which is just about here now.

You arrive home from work and a bunch of thieves are in the process of hauling your stuff out of your front door, and you ask them: “please stop”. But with no preventative action on your part, they quickly recognize there will be none, laugh at you, push you aside, and continue on. You can wave bye bye to them as they drive off and then go sit on your bare floor, suck your thumb, and have a good cry. At least your t.v. will be gone.

Don

We will never be free again and secure until the Federal Reserve and the Wall Street gangsters are out of business. Remember is was labor unions who fought to get Clinton elected, we personally is responsible for much of the deregulation, the NAFTA sucking sound. Wake up America both parties work for the same boss. End the Fed and pull you head out. Banks should borrow from Government not the other way around.
Its probably too late to stop the NWO order, The same player will run that too.

Falco

Continental Structural Plastics is only moving to N. Indiana and will actually employ about 100 more than it did in North Baltimore Ohio. Gotta research almost everything people.

Half-Right

Tom, VegasBob and Lennie nailed it.

Sorry, teabag types, you are misguided. It’s admirable that you recognize something is wrong and have mobilized, but your stubborn loyalty to the dog whistle issues of Republican party and your closeted hatred of black people (not all of you, but too many) have made your efforts counterproductive.

I’m not defending Obama. He’s a tool of the corporations, too, though not as much as the last guy, or any Republican for that matter.

Please wake up and use your efforts for good. Because right now, you’re part of the problem, not part of the solution.

May God save America. But I think it’s probably too late.

Gary

sharonsj-good articulate response. I totally agree with you but you have a way of saying it that is simple to understand and to the point-keep posting!

JL

I can’t believe how many socialist/communist ideological believers that post to this blog.

As history tells it, none of these beliefs have ever even come close to working yet you people cling to the belief YOU can make it work.

FACTS are a sticky thing. YOUR IDEAS have never and will never work. Move onto to something that has worked and STFU. Thank you!

Lennie Pike

JL:

Those of us you call Socialist/Communist Idealogical believers are actually Free Market Capitalists who realize that if that market is not confined mainly inside the boundaries of our country that we will become a third world nation.

The fact is that our form of government now is Facism. Big Business has bought our government. What we have is Fixed Market Crony Capitalism which in the end will result in no economic opportunity for you, unless you are one of them. You probably are.

Lennie Pike

And what type of person is “one of them”? It’s a pretty small type of person: One who likes a rigged game in their favor gained through bribery. One who couldn’t care less if their employees are abused in the manner that Joe in JT described. One who doesn’t care if his country falls apart and into chaos due to his actions, as long as he gets his. One who doesn’t have what it takes to compete on an even playing field. A coward, a traitor, and a thoughtless prick are three good names to call “them” to start off with.

Elderlost

What this boils down to is the fact that this has been in progress since the very early 1970s!!It is a plan to turn America into a Third World Nation! How do you boycot foreign made products? We don’t hardly make anything anymore! We’d be naked and live in huts or caves! Golly, guess that’s the plan!!!

http://erectuswalksamongstus.com Max Hardwood

At the family BBQ over the weekend, my niece arrived with her new ‘light-em-up’ shoes with LED lights that came on whenever she bounced in her shoes (these have been around for awhile, I know). I said, “Gee, what will the Chinese think of next to sell us Dumb Americans?”.

Or, how about the ‘adjustable’ cheese slicer I saw sitting in our dish tray this morning?

The Chinese are geniuses: they took the American idea of ‘ingenuity’ to a whole new
level, sold us idiot all of their little plastic, cheap gadgets, and are now billionaires buying real estate and creating their own ‘bubble’. Poor, stupid, Amerika.

Paul

Want to know what I’d like to know? What happens when 49% of the US population is supporting the other 51% ? Will it happen? I believe so. The REAL unemployemnt numbers are much higher than the reported numbers. Stay tuned for the next episode of “The De-industrialization of the Once Great United States”

bigal

Apparently a couple hundred years of capitalism is about all this country can take. Bad system for humans, as it caters to our natural greed.

Torches, Pitchforks, and Revolutions

@VegasBob, Lennie and Half-Right. Couldn’t agree more. Lennie is dead on: crony capitalism is the rule of the day in the modern Amerikan fascist state. I might add that we do not have two political parties, no matter how much propaganda is spewed by MSM; the only real political party is corporatism. As to Obama, he’s simply a corporate PR Hologram (as would/will be anyone who occupies the white house).

orin oppermann

Stop the World I want to get off.

http://deVidal.BlogSpot.com/ Chris de Vidal

What I’m most interested in is net loss; Have any plants been opened during the same timeframe?